GA Gun Store Sues NYC For Libel Over Sales Sting

By |July 21, 2006

A Georgia gun store called Adventure Outdoors sued New York City officials seeking $400 million for libeling and slandering them as “rogue gun dealers,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Stu Loeser, a spokesman for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, called the case a “public relations stunt (that) won’t be able to overshadow the fact a small number of reckless gun dealers constantly and illegally allow their guns to get in the hands of criminals.”

New York sued 15 gun stores in May. That suit charges the stores with negligence in selling handguns that wound up in the hands of people who are not allowed to have them. From 1994 to 2001, Adventure Outdoors allegedly sold at least 21 guns that authorities in New York found in the possession of people with no legal rights to a gun. In a sting at Adventure Outdoors, New York says that the suit alleges that the store allowed a “straw” purchase by someone not intending to keep the gun. “It’s considered the 101 of what you’re not supposed to do,” said John Feinblatt, criminal justice coordinator for Bloomberg. “We’ve got no beef with gun dealers who play by the rules. Gun control is not our interest. Crime control is.”

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